BOULDER, Colo -- Video showing a pack of Florida high school girls beating a classmate until she is unconscious is just the latest in a string of on line testimonials to teen violence, some set in Colorado.
One Colorado teacher believes they are a misguided effort by teens to provide a rite of passage.
“In these films, they are telling us what they need,” said Aaron Huey, director of Fire Mountain Programs, a youth empowerment camp in Boulder.
He has worked with some of the teens ticketed in the Fairview Fight Club last month.
Traditionally, he said, adults provide access to a rite of passage, a ritual to help transition from teen to adult.
“If we don’t provide teenagers with what they need, they will provide he for themselves,” he said.
To address those concerns, he started a “teen rite of passage” program to push children out of their comfort zones.
15-year-old Ali Kirby enrolled last February and couldn’t believe the first exersize.
“My whole body was shaking,” she said. “I’m walking barefoot over eight feet of broken glass – how am I going to do this? But you go to do these things, and you get this huge rush and you think if I can do this, what else can I do?”
Her mother, Terri, said her daughter found her voice without a fight.
“I can see how that would happen,” said Kirby. “I really want to do whatever I can to make sure my children don’t play into that.”
Aaron Huey said parents can help their teens through this time by listening to what they’re saying without lecturing or reacting and by giving them ways to push their boundaries and take risks.
It could be a boxing program, martial arts, or anything that sets them apart so they won’t just go along with the crowd.
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